The Changqiu Palace is located in the deepest part of the imperial palace. Just outside its palace wall is the moat of the Forbidden City. It is located in a remote area and is a place truly forgotten by the palace people.
Normally the ground here is covered with fallen leaves and no one cleans them. They are usually spread on the ground like decorations. When the heavy snow falls and covers the fallen leaves, this place actually looks a little cleaner and tidier.
The atmosphere of the upcoming New Year did not extend here either. Not only did no palace servants come to clean, but no one hung up New Year lanterns with auspicious and festive meanings.
Deserted and lonely are the descriptions of this place.
The eunuch chief, who had always been conscientious and responsible, took care of almost the entire palace, but forgot this place. It was not because of his bad memory, but he did it on purpose.
The reason is simple, because the person living here is a hostage from an enemy country, the sixth prince of Qi, Qi Chenli.
Many years ago, when the late emperor was still in power, the country was far more powerful than it is now. At one point, it almost conquered the State of Qi, but ultimately failed due to various reasons.
However, this also forced the State of Qi to surrender dozens of cities in exchange for peace.
To show his sincerity, the Emperor of Qi took the initiative to send the sixth prince born to a favorite concubine to Yan State as a hostage, in the hope that Yan State would see Qi's intention to surrender and seek peace.
As long as the hostage was there, Yan could no longer attack Qi. Similarly, because the hostage was there, Qi could not betray Yan and had to offer countless gold, silver and treasures every year.
The first few years were fine, but in the past three years, Yan State's spies in Qi State reported that Qi State was caught in internal strife and the two princes were fighting a tug-of-war for the throne.
The Qi State, which was caught in a tug-of-war, naturally had no energy to care about a mere hostage, and took the initiative to cut off the supply to the Yan State.
In this regard, Emperor Yanqing, who had spent extravagantly to build the palace, no longer cared about his life or death as much as in previous years.
After all, he is just a prince who cannot bring any benefits to the Kingdom of Yan...
But they did not stop eating and drinking, because no one knew whether Qi would think of Qi Chenli after the internal strife was over.
When the tribute was resumed, the envoy found that Qi Chenli was nowhere to be seen.
Upon asking, oh no, he was dead.
That would be the end of it.
Not only will you forget about taking the free tribute, you may even use it as an excuse to start a war: the current strength of the Yan State is only one-third of what it was, and if a real war breaks out, it's hard to say who will win or lose.
However, Emperor Yanqing did not understand human nature.
He didn't know that because of his indifference, the palace servants under him dared to openly deduct Qi Chenli's food and put his food expenses into their own pockets.
In just three short years, Qi Chenli lived a life of hunger and starvation.
Recently, there have been rumors that Qi State has started a civil war. Some people have predicted that when the new emperor becomes emperor, Qi Chenli, the hostage, will be completely finished. Since ancient times, how many new emperors can tolerate their brothers?
To say something extremely treasonous, let's take Emperor Yanqing as an example. After he came to power, he killed some of his brothers and imprisoned some. None of them had a good ending.
After this omen came out, Qi Chenli was completely finished. He realized how good it was to be hungry one day and full the next. Now, he could not feel full after eating one meal, and the next meal would be three or four days later...
It will just make him even thinner.
As the New Year was approaching these days, perhaps the palace people were too busy and hadn't sent him any food for four days. At first, he could still survive on the dry food that he had secretly saved up before, but when the dry food was finished, he was completely helpless.
Xingde had no choice but to sneak into the imperial kitchen to eat after dark, risking being discovered, because he was worried that Qi Chenli would starve to death.
Perhaps because he had eaten, Xingde's steps were particularly vigorous when he returned. He took a shortcut that only he could take and returned to Changqiu Palace without stopping.
There were spider webs on the gate of Changqiu Palace.
Back at the door, Xingde was about to push it open when he was caught off guard and hit in the face by a huge spider. He was so scared that he screamed and turned his head left and right, trying to drive the spider away by madness.
However, the spider stuck firmly to his face and then fell to his neck, but it didn't fall off.
Xingde was so scared that tears came to his eyes. He temporarily lifted up his robe and wrapped a large pile of food, which was hanging steadily in his arms.
There was no choice. He was reluctant to put down the food, so he let the spider hang on his neck.
He sobbed, pushed the door open with his shoulder, and walked in unsteadily and stumblingly.
In the bedroom of the side hall, Qi Chenli fainted from hunger. He lay straight on the bed with his eyes closed - he had given the last food to Xingde half a day ago.
So Xingde still had some strength, but he fainted from hunger.
Xingde put all the food on the table, then lit a match and lit the candle.
The windows of the room were closed, and the flickering candlelight illuminated the room. Xingde blinked, and his pupils illuminated by the candlelight were watery, and two new tears slid down his thin cheeks.
He got some free time, suppressed his nausea, grabbed the spider from his neck and threw it out the door, then gently touched Qi Chenli's arm:
"Your Highness, wake up..."
There was no response, so he used all his strength and shook it vigorously.
Finally, under his strong shaking, Qi Chenli, who had fainted peacefully, faintly opened his eyes...
Like Xingde, he was so thin that he looked unrecognizable, and his eyes looked exceptionally large. But because he was so handsome, even though he looked unrecognizable, the beauty of his eyes remained undiminished.
"Cough...!!" Qi Chenli coughed weakly a few times and looked at Xingde beside the bed: "You're back."
Xingde said he wanted to steal some food, so Qi Chenli waited in the dormitory - it was too cold outside and there was no charcoal fire in the room, so he had to close the doors and windows and lie on the bed. This not only gave him some warmth, but also prevented him from fainting from hunger and freezing to death.
It turned out that he was very foresighted, and he did faint from hunger. Fortunately, since Ben was lying on the bed, he could just close his eyes and didn't have to worry about freezing to death before starving to death.
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